Decline of the Ashikaga Shogunate (1470s)

Timeline

1. 1471–1477Kyoto · KyotoSince the outbreak of the Ōnin War, Ashikaga Yoshimasa had been unable to halt the conflict between Hosokawa and Yamana, and the shogunate palace was repeatedly caught in the fighting. The shogun's orders did not extend beyond Kyoto, shugo daimyō no longer attended court regularly, and the honkei-on'go system of service and fiefs became a dead letter. The shogunate's san-kan'yō system was thrown out of balance by the dominance of Hosokawa Katsumoto, and the shogun was reduced to a pawn in the rival daimyō's power struggles.
2. 1473–1478Hanano Gosho · KyotoIn 1473 the shogunate palace burned down, and Yoshimasa moved to the Hanano Gosho; shogunate revenues plummeted due to the war and the refusal of the provinces to remit taxes. To raise funds for the construction of Ginkaku-ji, the shogun borrowed from the daimyō, deepening the shogunate's economic dependence on the Hosokawa clan. Unable to pay stipends or relieve disaster victims, the shogunate's function as the nation's political center shrank severely.
3. 1478–1480Kyoto · KyotoAfter the war subsided, Yoshimasa had no son, and the question of shogunal succession came to the fore; tensions gradually emerged between Yoshimasa's brother Yoshitsugu and his son Yoshitoshi. The shogunate was powerless to arbitrate disputes among the provinces, while shugo daimyō such as Hosokawa, Yamana, and Ise each consolidated their own domains, leaving the shogun with only the nominal authority conferred by imperial investiture. By 1480, the Muromachi shogunate had essentially lost its function as the center of warrior rule.